Legal Framework
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The Legal & Procedural Framework.

Thai Adoption Group
Ireland

A detailed review of Irish Adoption law (foreign or domestic) is beyond the remit of this site. For a fuller overview, one should consult chapter 12 of Shatter’s Family Law 4th ed (Alan Shatter: Butterworths), or Adoption Law & Practice (Kerry O’Halloran: Butterworths). Currently, the recognition of an adoption of a Thai child by a couple domiciled in Ireland at the time of adoption comes within the framework of the Adoption Act 1991. There are two core aspects to this framework:-

a. Parental eligibility and suitability: Intended adoptors, in order to have their foreign adoption registered by Irish Law must at the very outset be deemed to be eligible and suitable to adopt. This involves adoptors applying to their local Health Board for an assessment of suitability to adopt. The Health Board carry out an assessment and forward their assessment report to the Adoption Board. If satisfied with the report, the Adoption Board issue a declaration of eligibility and suitability to adopt. This declaration is a core document in any application to Thailand for adoption.

b. Recognition of Thai Adoptions: In order to have a foreign adoption recognised under the above framework, it is necessary that the law relating to adoption in the child’s country of origin is sufficiently compatible with Irish adoption law to merit recognition in Ireland. Thai adoption law was considered by the Irish Adoption Board in this respect and has been deemed to be sufficiently compatible to merit recognition in Ireland.

Accordingly, once the Thai authorities make a final adoption order to an Irish couple declared suitable and eligible to adopt by the Irish Adoption Board, that order will be recognized and registered in Ireland. Recognition of the adoption order can only be refused if there have been significant adverse changes in circumstances for the adoptor(s) between the granting of the declaration of suitability and eligibility; and the application for recognition. TAG has not experienced a case where recognition has refused in this way.

Thailand has not signed or ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. The experiences of TAG members in Thailand however indicate that best practices are adhered to at every stage of inter-country adoption. No administrative charges whatever arise in Thailand – Ireland adoptions (Applicants simply pay a small charge (less than £20.00) for their child’s Thai passport before departure). Irish adoption authorities have been very satisfied with the practices and standards obtaining in Thai-Irish adoptions. Indeed, since the summer of 1999, the Irish Adoption Board has assumed the function of a central authority in this jurisdiction for Thai-Ireland adoptions. This means that applicants wishing to adopt from Thailand now make that application via the Adoption Board, which, in turn liaises with the Department of Public Welfare in Bangkok (the Thai central authority). Applicants no longer liaise directly with Thailand. Once an application has been made, all queries concerning the application are channeled through the Adoption Board.

In short, the broad attractions of Thailand as a country from which to adopt are two fold: Firstly, adoption orders made in Thailand are in effect,  automatically recognized in Ireland under the Adoption Act 1991; Secondly and more importantly, the practices applied in Thai-Irish adoptions (which specifically exclude the payment of money as fees, charges or otherwise),  are an adoptors guarantee that the placement has been made in circumstances that are solely and absolutely in the best interests of the child.